PM - Thursday, 5 June , 2003 18:46:00

Reporter: Paula Kruger

MARK COLVIN: New official statistics show that a doubling in the number of divorces has meant that Australia has more single parents than ever before. The figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show the number rising by more than 50 per cent since the mid-eighties. The figures have reignited calls for more federal government action to reduce marriage break-ups by promoting family friendly policies.

Paula Kruger reports.

PAULA KRUGER: The Australian family has been changing in size and structure for several decades. The latest figures from the Bureau of statistics underline just how significant those changes have been.

In 1986 there were nearly 500,000 one-parent families. Now there are more than 760,000. That is a 53 per cent increase over 15 years. The Sole Parents Union, a support group for single parent families, says that represents a lot of people living in great hardship.

President Kathleen Swinbourne.

KATHLEEN SWINBOURNE: Being a sole parent is extremely difficult. Anyone who is a parent knows how hard it is. Now, it's not just twice as hard when you are on your own, it's much more than that. You're often dealing with emotional issues. If you have come from a violent or abusive relationship, your kids need a lot of care and you are doing this all by yourself, often with no support whatsoever.

PAULA KRUGER: The sharp rise in one-parent families hasn't surprised the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

Senior Research Adviser David DeVaus.

DAVID DEVAUS: We've know that the percentage of families that are one parent families has been steadily increasing. It's one of the biggest sorts of changes that we're seeing in family types.

But it's not a big surprise, because what we've got at the same time is a number of other family and social trends that are really, I think, producing this increase. The one obvious one is the steady increase in divorce.

PAULA KRUGER: In the past 15 years the number of divorcees has almost doubled from about 600,000 people to more than a million. Being a sole parent family had in the past been considered a transition phase. Many divorcees would go on to remarry.

But that's happening less, leaving many parents struggling to support children on their own. The Federal Government has been accused of neglecting the growing number of families in need.

Kathleen Swinbourne has called for more family friendly policies that take the pressure off struggling parents and reduce the risk of a marriage break-up.

KATHLEEN SWINBOURNE: We need to be addressing issues like family leave, parental leave, family friendly work practices. And particularly child care, very good child care we need and very importantly paid maternity leave. And unfortunately that's the one big area the Federal Government left out of the last budget.

PAULA KRUGER: The Federal Government says it is doing the best it can.

Minister for Family and Community Services Amanda Vanstone.

AMANDA VANSTONE: I have worked very hard to get the helping parents return to work initiative up. That's the initiative where we're taking on more personal advisors to directly and practically help people plan how they will eventually get back into the workforce.

PAULA KRUGER: But they've also been calling for things like paid maternity leave and childcare. Is that something the Federal Government would look at, given that we're looking at an increasing number of single parents in the community?

AMANDA VANSTONE: In relation to childcare, in the first six or seven years of this Government, in real terms, and we're not talking about nominal dollars, this Government has spent 70 per cent more on childcare than in the last six or seven years of the Labor Government.

As for paid maternity leave, we're looking at work and family issues and have been for some time. Paid maternity leave of course, would be something that would be of benefit to women for a short period of time after they've had their baby, but not much help to anybody else.

Not much help for more access to child care. So we're looking at a range of products that can help the work and family balance, not just paid maternity leave.

MARK COLVIN: The Minister for Family and Community Services Amanda Vanstone, speaking to Paula Kruger.